University of Maryland sued for canceling Oct. 7 vigil on campus

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A University of Maryland student group has filed a lawsuit against the university over a planned interfaith vigil to mark one year of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. University leadership decided to cancel the vigil earlier this month.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Palestine Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of the UMD Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on Monday, challenging the decision.

The decision to cancel the event came after university leadership initially granted SJP permission to hold the vigil, which the group planned to co-host with Jewish Voice For Peace at the University of Maryland. 

University President Darryll Pines sent a letter to the UMD community saying only university-sponsored events would be allowed on that day, out of what Pines calls "an abundance of caution."

The university had faced pressure from some Jewish groups to specifically ban the vigil before the university announced its decision.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would allow the vigil to go ahead as originally planned. 

CAIR and Palestine Legal say the decision to cancel the event constitutes unlawful viewpoint and content-based discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment.

"The First Amendment does not allow the government to make October 7th or any other day a free-expression-black-out date. The clarity of the constitutional violation, if maintained, courts conflict," said CAIR National Deputy Litigation Director Gadeir Abbas.

Oct. 7 marks one year since the Hamas-led attack on Israel that marked the start of the war in Gaza. The initial attack killed about 1,200 people. Since then, more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed.